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August 2008
The Fearless Friday Forecast
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Man, I never thought this day would get here. A lot sure has happened since January 7, when LSU body-slammed Ohio State in New Orleans to give the SEC its second straight national championship. Just a few of the highlights:
**—A tornado hit the Georgia Dome in March, but now it’s all spiffy again and ready for Saturday night’s showdown between Alabama and Clemson.
**—The BCS commissioners thought about going to a four-team playoff (or at least they say they did.) But they decided that the status quo in the post-season for the next six years.
**—Georgia parlayed an impressive win over Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl into a unanimous No. 1 ranking and now must defend it against an unprecedented schedule.
**—Speaking of Georgia, we lost UGA VI in June. Regardless of who you pull for you have to admit that he was a Damn good dog. I sent some of the video of his funeral at Sanford Stadium to my friends around the country. In it the Rev. Claude McBride ends the service by saying: “Sic’ em UGA. Woof. Woof. Amen!” I’m sorry, folks, but you just don’t get that in the Big Ten. UGA VII makes his debut tomorrow in Athens.
And finally, not a moment too soon, we have the first Fearless Friday Forecast of the 2008 season. As first weekends go, this one is pretty good. But here’s today’s question: Was last season, with all of the craziness, just an aberration or a sign of things to come? Is there an Appalachian State over Michigan out there this weekend?
I sure hope so.
Let’s get on the with the picks:
1. Georgia Southern at Georgia: The Bulldogs get an early tee time (12:30 p.m.) on Saturday and they should make the most of it. This is a game where Georgia needs to work on that offensive line, which needs to rally a little bit after the loss of LT Trinton Sturdivant. We also need to see who is going to get the football after Knowshon Moreno completes his obligatory 15-18 carries. It’s time for Georgia to start getting their ducks in a row for that Sept. 13 trip to South Carolina. Georgia 45, Georgia Southern 14.
2. Clemson vs. Alabama (Georgia Dome): Early in the summer it appeared that Clemson just had too much firepower for the Crimson Tide. But it looks like Alabama will have a little more pop in the offense with the addition of freshman WR Julio Jones and they now have a mammoth athlete at the nose tackle in Terrence Cody. I still think Clemson wins the game but it’s going to be tight. Very, very tight. Clemson 20, Alabama 17.
3. Appalachian State at LSU: After what Appalachian State did at Michigan’s Big House in the 2007 opener, there is no chance that the Tigers are going to overlook the Mountaineers from Boone, who have won three straight Division I-AA national championships. Appalachian State lost a bunch of good players but it still has quarterback Armanti Edwards, who drives good defenses crazy with his ability to move around and avoid pressure. LSU wins the game but Edwards and the Mountaineers keep it uncomfortably close for three quarters. LSU 31, Appalachian State 17.
4. Hawaii at Florida: It doesn’t look like Percy Harvin is going to play for the Gators but it won’t matter. June Jones is not the coach any more and QB Colt Brennan is also long gone. Florida gets the chance to field test its new offense which has surrounded QB Tim Tebow with several more weapons. The defense will have a confidence booster against the Hawaii offensive line. The last time Hawaii lined up against a team from the SEC (Georgia in the Sugar Bowl) it didn’t look pretty. This one will not look pretty either Florida 56, Hawaii 17.
5. Louisiana-Monroe at Auburn: Tony Franklin’s spread offense is put on display for the home folks at Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time. We are still waiting to see who will take the first snap-Kodi Burns or Chris Todd-but at the end of the day it won’t matter. Both can do some things to make the defense nervous. Auburn can’t afford to take ULM lightly because of what happened last November in Tuscaloosa. A lot of people (this writer included) are picking Auburn to replace LSU, the defending national champions, atop the SEC West. We’ll get an early indication in this one whether or not Auburn has the right stuff for that. Auburn 31, ULM 13.
6. Memphis at Ole Miss: Ole Miss has not been this excited about a football season since Eli Manning was a senior in 2003. That’s because new coach Houston Nutt inherited enough good players from Ed Orgeron to lead the Rebels to a bowl game this season. Quarterback Jevan Snead, a transfer from Texas, is finally eligible But don’t underestimate Memphis, which just an hour up the road. Tommy West’s team (7-6) finished strong after a 2-4 start last season and returns 16 starters. This is a rivalry game and anything can happen. Ole Miss 31, Memphis 24.
7. Tennessee at UCLA (Monday): For the second straight season the Volunteers open the season out on the West Coast. This trip, however, will be a lot more fun than the 2007 beat down (45-31) the Vols suffered at California. Yes, there are a lot of questions on the Tennessee team as there is a new offensive coordinator (Dave Clawson), new quarterback (Jonathan Crompton) and the hope that the Vols don’t have the same old defense (which finished 11th in the SEC last season). UCLA lost its first two quarterbacks and is down to junior college transfer Kevin Craft. This is not how new coach Rick Neuheisel wanted to start out. Tennessee 27, UCLA 17.
8. Kentucky at Louisville (Sunday): After a historic 2007 season that saw Kentucky beat LSU, the eventual national champions, in Lexington, there is an assumption that the Wildcats will fall back from the eight-victory level in 2008. Nobody lost more offensive firepower than the ‘Cats with the departure of QB Andre Woodson and a bunch of really good playmakers. But Coach Rich Brooks insists this is the deepest team he’s had at Kentucky and that this is clearly the best defense the Wildcats have had in a while. Louisville is still rebuilding post-Bobby Petrino. Kentucky wins with defense. Kentucky 24, Louisville 17.
9. Southern Cal at Virginia: Quarterback Mark Sanchez is going to answer the bell after dislocating this kneecap earlier in the summer. That is bad news for the Cavaliers. With Sanchez running the show, USC is good enough to win them all and play in South Florida for the national title. The last two times the Trojans started the season in the East (2003, 2004) they went on to win at least a share of the national championship. Southern Cal 30, Virginia 14.
10. Missouri vs. Illinois (St. Louis): This will be a very good quarterback battle between Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Juice Williams of Illinois. The Tigers get the edge because they have Jeremy Maclin, the most explosive player this side of Percy Harvin. Some are picking Missouri to beat Oklahoma for the Big 12 championship. We’ll find out in a hurry if the Gary Pinkel’s crew is the real deal. Missouri 31, Illinois 20.
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Are college football fans losing their sense of humor?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here is your burning question to ponder on this Thursday morning, the first day of the 2008 season:
How many people have NOW heard of Vic Koenning?
Unless you’re a football junkie like those of us on this blog, Koenning, Clemson’s defensive coordinator, was a relatively unknown football coach before this week.
But now Koenning is VERY well known in the state of Alabama for comments he said were a joke concerning Alabama freshmen Julio Jones and B.J. Scott. Koenning told reporters that during the recruiting process he saw Jones and Scott, at separate times, drive off in a luxury car. For those who don’t have a sense of humor, it is a veiled (or not so veiled) reference that perhaps somebody supplied these young men with a car and violated the rules.
Now coaches and fans have been joking about the transportation opportunities of players since the leather helmet days. In the past such comments would not have created a ripple in the media ocean because of the context in which they were made.
But what we have learned is that when it comes to college football, particularly in the internet culture of the 21st century, a good portion of the hardcore fan base in the South does not have a sense of humor. I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m just saying that’s the way it is.
I once saw a sign behind a coach’s desk that said: “College football is not a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that.”
It is the passion that makes college football in the South the best sport in the world. But it is also the emotion with the greatest potential to hurt the game that we all love.
Let’s look at this logically and not emotionally—if such a thing is possible. If Koenning actually wanted to accuse another school of doing something wrong, would he do it in such an off the cuff manner? It doesn’t make sense.
Koenning shouldn’t have said it. It was a dumb comment, particularly in the media environment of 2008. You can’t be tone deaf to the fact that everything that is said gets around the world in an instant. He now knows that.
My concern is for the bigger picture. When a smart aleck response by a coach gets turned into an international incident like this one was, it gives head coaches more ammunition to keep their assistants locked up and away from the media and the fans. And that hurts the fans because those guys give good insights that you’ll never get from the head coach. For the rest of this season you can bet that Koenning’s answers to questions are going to be “yes” or “no.” That’s not good for the sport.
If we keep going down this road, college football is going to become tightly scripted with very limited access to anyone outside of the program, just like political campaigns. And that can’t be good for the fans.
What’s the answer? Restraint? Rational thought? A sense of humor?
I’m asking. Am I wrong about this?
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The ACC, Clemson need to step up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a big football weekend for the ACC.
Is it a make or break weekend? Of course not. It’s a long season, But the next four days are big for the ACC. Here’s why.
The ACC expanded to add Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College because it wanted to sit at the same table, both competitively and financially, with the SEC, Big 12, and Big 10. On the financial side of things expansion has been good for the ACC. Very good, in fact.
Competitively? Not so much. The new ACC is still a work in progress.
Here are the important numbers from a story I wrote back in July at the ACC preseason meetings:
1-9: The ACC’s record in BCS Bowl games. Florida State won the 1999 BCS championship. The ACC has lost nine straight since.
2-17: The ACC’s record against non-conference teams ranked in the Top 10 over the past four years.
9-31: The ACC’s record against non-conference teams ranked in the Top 25 the past four years.
0: The number of times the ACC has received an at-large bid to a BCS game in 10 years.
Back in July ACC coaches and other officials assured me that because all the fundamentals were in place, it was just a matter of time before the league stepped up.
This weekend would be a good time to start.
Starting Thursday, the ACC has four non-conference games this weekend against BCS opponents:
Wake Forest at Baylor
N.C. State at South Carolina
Southern Cal at Virginia
Clemson vs. Alabama at the Georgia Dome.
If things go to form, the ACC goes 2-2 with Clemson and Wake Forest winning. Southern Cal is just a lot better than Virginia. N.C. State will play South Carolina tough but the Gamecocks probably win at home.
So what does all of this mean? It means that for the sake of the ACC, Clemson needs to beat Alabama Saturday night. Clemson is the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC and the closest thing the league has to a national championship contender. Miami and Florida State are still at least a year away from competing for a championship. Virginia Tech is completely rebuilding its defense. Georgia Tech, N.C. State, Boston College, and North Carolina all have first or second year coaches.
Clemson is a veteran team with its quarterback, two best running backs, best wide receiver, and seven defensive starters returning. Coach Tommy Bowden is in his 10th season at Clemson.
Alabama is picked to finish third in the SEC West in the second year of Nick Saban’s rebuilding project. At best, Alabama is projected as the fifth or sixth best team in the SEC.
On a week where the SEC grabbed headlines for its 15-year, $2.25 BILLION dollar television deal with ESPN, the ACC needs some good news. It needs the league’s best team to step up and play well on national television.
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CBS, ESPN deals will be huge in recruiting for SEC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was still getting calls late Monday night about the SEC’s staggering 15-year deal with ESPN that will reportedly pay the league about $2.25 billion. That deal, coupled with the 15-year deal the SEC has signed with CBS will give the league financial security for a long, long time.
But the benefits to the SEC from these TV deals go far beyond financial. Here are some aspects of the deal that maybe you haven’t thought about:
1. It will be huge for the SEC in recruiting: The games on ESPN and ESPN2 will have a unique national branding as the “SEC on ESPN.” That may not sound like a big deal to you but it will be a major recruiting pitch in the future. No other conference has that kind of branding on ESPN: Not the Big Ten, not the Big 12, and not the ACC. The SEC will be able to walk into a living room and say that every conference game will either be on CBS or one of the ESPN platforms. And if the SEC is recruiting a player outside the nine-state area, the coaches can tell parents that the games will be on the dish as part of ESPN’s Game Plan. This is a huge part of this deal. The NFL has the best television package on the planet but what the SEC has with CBS and ESPN is not far off.
2. The SEC no longer needs its own network: I talked to commissioner Mike Slive late Monday and he told me he was once convinced that an SEC network was the way to go. “I felt that way for about a year because I thought it was the only way we could get everything we wanted in terms of exposure and revenue,” said Slive, a former attorney and judge.
This new deal eliminates the need for the SEC to invest in its own network because ESPN is going to do it for them.
When the SEC representatives sat down to negotiate with ESPN they brought a laundry list of things they felt their own network could do for them. “Every time we would bring up an issue of something that we wanted, ESPN would come back to us and say ‘We can do that for you,’” Slive said. So the SEC gets the benefits of its own network without any of the risk. It will use ESPN’s massive infrastructure instead of having to build its own. “If we start our own network you’re looking at a 20-year commitment at least,” said Slive.
And here’s a question worth pondering. What if the Big Ten had asked ESPN to do this same deal? Would there be a Big Ten Network today?
3. The SEC hired Chuck Gerber: Who is Chuck Gerber, you ask? Gerber spent the past 15 years at ESPN where he, among many things, negotiated television contracts with conferences. But in April the SEC hired Gerber away from ESPN to serve as a consultant as the league prepared to renegotiate its deals with CBS and ESPN. It makes sense. If you are going to negotiate with the TV boys, you want somebody who has lived on that side of the fence who can get inside their brains. More importantly, you want to know what kind of money is actually available for properties like SEC football.
Working for the SEC, Gerber got a 15-year deal with CBS worth about $55 million per year. He got another 15-year deal with ESPN worth about $150 per year. I don’t know what Gerber got as a consulting fee, but he earned his money this year.
“I think I’m going to take the rest of the year off,” said Gerber, who still lives in Connecticut.
Slive’s senior staff, which includes Mark Womack, Mark Whitworth, Charles Hussey, and Charles Bloom, was also big in these negotiations. But hiring Gerber was huge.
FYI. When Gerber made it clear that he was ready to get into the consulting business, some conferences passed on him because he was just leaving ESPN. The SEC hired him BECAUSE he was just leaving ESPN. Decisions like that are why the SEC stays ahead of the curve.
4. This deal shows that college football is king: Other conferences should take heed of this deal because it shows the value of college football in a changing marketplace. While just about all other sports, including college basketball, are hurting when it comes to ratings, college football is more popular than it has ever been and is increasing in value.
Other than the NFL, the TV execs are discovering that college football gives them the most bang for their buck. Collectively CBS and ESPN are investing $3 billion into the SEC over the next 15 years. Those guys don’t throw around that kind of money on an asset that is going to decrease in value over time.
5. Keep the three Daves: I feel badly for my friends at Raycom, who are really the only losers in this deal. Raycom, which carries the 12:30 p.m. game, got squeezed out when ESPN decided it wanted to own all of the television rights not belonging to CBS. Raycom will still do the early SEC games this season, which is the last in the current deal. Next season ESPN Regional Television (ERT) will handle the syndicated package of games.
This is just one man’s opinion, but if ESPN is smart, they’ll keep the same broadcast team of Dave Neal, Dave Archer, and Dave Baker to do the early SEC games. In fact, the SEC should insist on it. Continuity is important, especially in the over the air package of games, which has played an important role in the growth of the conference on TV. It’s just something to think about.
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Will UGA take care of business against Ga. Southern?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay. It is FINALLY game week. It seems like we’ve said it all and written it all more than once this summer. But here are five things we STILL don’t know about the SEC as we head into Thursday’s opening night:
1. Will Georgia take care of business against Georgia Southern? When a team begins a season with great expectations, like No. 1 Georgia, it sometimes takes the players a while to really get out of the gate. But understand this: With all due respect to Georgia Southern, this ain’t Appalachian State coming to Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
The Eagles are a rebuilding team. Chris Hatcher is going to turn Georgia Southern into a national I-AA power again, but it won’t be this season. Georgia Southern has a new quarterback now that the splendid Jayson Foster, the Walter Payton Award winner, has gone on to the NFL. And it doesn’t help Georgia Southern’s cause that Hatcher had to suspend eight players for this game.
The point is that a very important trip to South Carolina is coming up on Sept. 13. Georgia needs to use this game and the tougher contest with Central Michigan on Sept. 6 to get ready to meet the Head Ball Coach in Columbia. There really isn’t time to be sloppy on Saturday.
It’s a 12:30 game. It will be hot. The game should be over at halftime. UGA VII will be making his debut and he doesn’t need to go through more than one bag of ice in this one.
2. How will Julio Jones and the Alabama freshmen perform when the stadium is full and the world is watching?:
A former coach used to tell me that he never completely trusted how a player looked in practice. “He’s got to prove it to me when the stadium is full and the band’s playing,” he would say.
Alabama has what some are saying is the best freshman class in the land. It would be hard to come up a more high profile debut than Saturday night’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff at the Georgia Dome against Clemson.
When Tom Arnold goes to Alabama’s practice and calls Julio Jones is the best receiver he’s ever seen, well, that just gets my attention. I’ve heard this kid compared to everybody from Michael Irvin to Randy Moss to Jerry Rice. He does look good in a practice uniform.
Here is my question. Nick Saban is known for throwing talented freshmen into the fire to see how they perform. Will new OC Jim McElwain try to hit a big play early and get Clemson, the ACC favorite, back on its heels? If I’m Alabama I’ve got nothing to lose in this game. I’m going to come out smokin’.
Besides, I’m a defense guy so I want to see JUCO transfer Terrence Cody, the big guy in the middle of the line and OLB Jerrell Harris. If both those guys play well, Alabama has a real shot in this game.
3. How many offensive plays will Auburn run? Louisiana-Monroe is picking up a check for $625,000 to visit Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers need to make the most of this opportunity with the first SEC game coming up on Sept. 13 at Mississippi State.
New OC Tony Franklin told me that Auburn has yet to run the spread offense as fast as he would like. The players simply didn’t know the offense well enough in the Chick-fil-A Bowl last December for Franklin to really turn it loose.
That is about to change. Franklin has two quarterbacks (Kodi Burns, Chris Todd) who are now very familiar with this scheme. Franklin insists that both quarterbacks will play a lot because both, quite frankly, are pretty good.
Let’s see how many plays the Tigers run on Saturday. Division I-A Teams averaged just about 72 offensive plays per game last season. Thanks to an overtime Auburn ran 90 against Clemson with the offense being run at about 60 percent, Franklin said.
I say Auburn runs 80-85 plays against ULM.
4. Who’s going to start at QB for LSU? I think Andrew Hatch, the transfer from Harvard, will take the first snap against Appalachian State on Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN). Coach Les Miles has gone to great pains to keep red-shirt freshman Jarrett Lee and true freshman Jordan Jefferson in the discussion. But understand this. LSU is so good on the offensive line that I could probably play quarterback for the Tigers. (Okay, slight exaggeration).
I wrote a story for the print side this morning that talks about Hatch being in the mold of Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn-smart athletes who made good decisions and relatively few mistakes. Hatch, who is a 22-year old sophomore, is the guy to play that role this season.
I think LSU will use more than one quarterback, particularly early in the season in order to provide a change of pace. But as LSU gets into the conference schedule at Auburn on Sept. 20, look for Miles to pull in the reins and be more conservative on offense. Why? Simple. The LSU defensive line may have lost Glenn Dorsey, the Outland Trophy winner, but it will still be the best in America this season.
5. Is Tommy Beecher ready for prime time? We’ll find out Thursday night when Beecher starts at QB for South Carolina against N. C. State (8 p.m., ESPN). In high school Beecher, from Concord, N.C., was one of those guys who just knew how to win.
The best thing I’ve read about Beecher was written on Sunday by my good friend Ron Morris of The State newspaper in Columbia. If you want understand what makes Beecher tick, click here and check out the story.
In my last meeting with Steve Spurrier this summer he expressed a lot of confidence in Beecher, who will be making his first college start in the nationally televised game on ESPN. Spurrier told me he has scaled back the offense a little bit in an effort to get Beecher off to a good start against the Wolfpack. We’ll be watching.
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Crowe says Tech will win an ACC title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s Friday and we’re only one week away from the first “Fearless Friday Forecast” of the 2008 season.
On Fridays I like to start this blog and see where the spirit will lead me. So here is some random stuff that just caught my attention this week:
1. Crowe says Georgia Tech will win an ACC championship under Johnson: Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe has every reason to say nice things about Paul Johnson, the new head coach at Georgia Tech. Crowe brings his Gamecock team to historic Bobby Dodd Stadium next Thursday night.
But Crowe said he is not just being nice when he predicts that Georgia Tech will win an ACC championship under Johnson. He’s just looking at the film.
“I can’t tell you when it’s going to be but I’ve seen Paul’s offense and I know how he coaches,” said Crowe, the former head coach at Arkansas. “He will finally get to run his system with a better caliber of athlete than he was able to get at Navy. People in the ACC will see the offense only one time each year and basically have only four days to get ready for it. That makes a huge difference.
“Give him some time to get his kind of players into his system. When his offense is run right, you can’t believe how much pressure it puts on a defense.”
2. An SEC officiating crew will work Alabama-Clemson: Somebody asked me this week which league, the SEC or ACC, would provide the officials for next week’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff between Alabama and Clemson game at the Georgia Dome. Normally, the league represented by the visiting school provides the game officials. When Florida plays at Florida State, for example, SEC officials work the game.
But this is a neutral site game. I did some calling around and it turns out that in the negotiations between Alabama and Clemson, it was agreed to make Clemson the designated home team and thus the Tigers get to wear their orange jerseys. In exchange SEC officials were chosen to work the game. It was no more complicated than that.
3. Alabama-Virginia Tech deal not done yet: I called Gary Stokan of the Atlanta Sports Council to see where things stood on next year’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff. Virginia Tech has already committed to play. Alabama coach Nick Saban wants to come back but there are still some scheduling issues that have not been resolved. Specifically, Alabama needs to move a road game with Tulane, set for 2009, to another season and find another home opponent. That would give Alabama seven home games in 2009 and leave one game free to come back to Atlanta.
A lot of people are starting to get involved in this one. ESPN may yet flex its muscles and become the ultimate broker.
“We’re working on it but we haven’t gotten it done yet,” said Stokan. “I just know that Nick wants to do it if the scheduling issues can be resolved.”
Prediction: The deal will get done because Saban knows the recruiting bump he’ll get by playing in this year’s game and next year’s game in Atlanta. Because of the corporate involvement by Chick-fil-A and The Home Depot, ESPN and College Game Day are locked in to this game as long as the match-up is strong. Too many people stand to benefit from this game. It will happen.
4. ESPN, SEC may be hatching another big deal: Last week the SEC made a 15-year deal with CBS to televise that league’s national game of the week. I’m hearing that ESPN is thinking seriously about also signing a 15-year deal with the SEC as well. But this deal may have an interesting twist. Under this deal ESPN would purchase all of the remaining television rights that CBS does not own.
Why would ESPN do this? Simple. If ESPN owned the remaining rights, it could put several SEC games on its various platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360) and then, whatever rights it had left and did not want, it could sell back to a group like Raycom or even Comcast. Distribution, however, could be an issue because a lot of cable systems do not carry ESPNU or 360 on their basic package. And those distribution issues could ultimately complicate the deal. Some of those distribution issues could be addressed by video streaming on the Internet, which is going to be a big part of these future TV deals.
Now to do all this ESPN would have to pony up some pretty big bucks over a long period of time. But the network has shown it is willing to pay handsomely for college football.
Stay tuned. As big as the CBS deal was for the SEC, this one will not be far behind if it happens.
And consider this: Last year the SEC made $50.6 million from its TV rights for regular season football. If this deal gets done, I’m hearing that that figure could almost double.
5. Warren a big get for Tennessee: The NCAA has finally cleared tight end Brandon Warren to play for Tennessee this season. Warren, you’ll remember, is from Alcoa, Tenn., just a short trip from Knoxville. He originally signed with Florida State and, after a freshman season in 2006 where he caught 27 passes for 301 yards for the Seminoles, wanted to come home and attend Tennessee. His mother had been diagnosed with cancer.
For reasons still unclear, FSU coach Bobby Bowden would not release Warren from his scholarship. That began a long and winding process to get Warren eligible for 2008. That process is now over.
Here is what matters now. If Warren plays as good as he looks in a uniform, he will be a great weapon for new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson. I talked to the coaches about Warren when I was there earlier this summer and saw the kid practice. With his size, speed and good hands, he is certainly the best tight end Tennessee has had since Jason Witten.
This Tennessee offense will be marked by its ability to move players around to create mismatches with the defense. Warren gives Clawson another tool that will enable him to do that.
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How will new clock rules change the game?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was on a conference call yesterday with some NCAA and college football officials to discuss a number of aspects about the upcoming season. Since the season starts a week from today, here are some new rules and points of emphasis that will probably interest you and my take on why you, as a fan, should care.
1. New clock rule No. 1: This season the NCAA will adopt a 40/25 second play clock like the one used in the NFL. The 40-second clock will begin as soon as a play is blown dead.
If there is a stoppage of play for a penalty, or after a timeout, etc., then the 25-second clock will be used and will begin as soon as the ball is marked ready for play.
Fans really won’t be able to tell the difference because under the old rules, when a play was over, it would usually take between 13-15 seconds for the officials to mark the ball ready for play and start the 25-second play clock. So the amount of time between plays basically won’t change.
Here’s why the 40-second clock was necessary. Coaches were telling me that some officiating crews were slower than others in getting the ball ready after the end of a play. So depending on what crew you got, the pace of play would vary. Coaches don’t like that.
“I like it (the new rule) because it gives you a more consistent pace of play,” Auburn OC Tony Franklin said. “We like to play fast and this allows us to play fast.”
There could be one difference brought about by the 40-second clock. I’m expecting to see more no-huddle offenses this season as coaches try to take advantage of the new clock to get in a few extra offensive plays per game. But there is a catch. If the offense substitutes, then the defense must be given a chance to bring in players as well. So the official will stand over the ball until all the substitutions are made. If the offense does not substitute, it can snap the ball as soon as the officials put it down.
2. New clock rule No. 2: This, in my opinion, is the big change and the one that fans will notice. In years past when the ball was run out of bounds, the game clock would stop and would not start again until the ball was snapped on the next play. This season when the ball goes out of bounds the game clock will still stop. But once the ball is ready for play, the official will immediately re-start the game clock.
The old rules will go back into effect for the last two minutes of the half and the last two minutes of the game. That gives teams a chance to run the two-minute drill and potentially make a comeback.
And why are we doing this? It’s yet another attempt (the third in three years) to speed up the game without losing too many offensive plays. Two years ago you’ll remember that they put in a bunch of rules changes that shortened the game but cut out about 13 offensive plays on average. The backlash from coaches and fans was severe.
So they went back to basically the old rules last year and games ran 3:22. College football officials would like to get games that average closer to three hours. This rule will definitely speed up the game and the hope is that the increased pace of play that is brought about by the 40-second clock will keep most of the plays in.
Here is the stat to watch. Last year there were on average 143.3 offensive plays per game, or about 72 per team. Watch the first month of the season and see if that figure goes up or down.
Here’s where the no huddle offense comes into play again. In last December’s Chick-fil-A Bowl, Auburn ran 90 plays against Clemson.
“It hard to say what the effect will be but if you want to play fast these rules will allow you to do it,” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said.
I know what you’re saying: Why don’t they just cut out some of the commercials and the games will be shorter? You know the answer. TV won’t cut out commercials and the band is not going to shorten half time.
3. Keep it clean; keep it safe: You could see an unusual number of 15-yard penalties in the first few games. Here’s why:
Football officials have been told that this season there will be a new emphasis on cleaning up unsportsmanlike conduct and unnecessary roughness. Officials will be less tolerant of taunting, trash talking and plays they believe are meant to injure another player.
For example, the NCAA has ruled that the “horse-collar” tackle (pulling a guy down from behind by reaching inside the top of his shoulder pads) will draw an automatic 15-yard penalty.
Also the “chop block” rule has been simplified. There used to be situations that allowed two players to block another player high (around the shoulder pads) and low (around his knees) at the same time. Not any more. You block a guy high-low and it’s a flag.
“If we are going to err, we’re going to err on the side of player safety,” said Dave Parry, the Big 10 supervisor of officials. “And we’re going to back our officials even if they are a little strict.”
My experience is when officials are told that something is a point of emphasis, you see it called a lot early in the season in order to get the message across to the players and coaches.
4. Don’t kick it OB: This is another rule that will speed up the game and change some strategy. Under the old rule, if a kickoff went out of bounds, the receiving team got the ball at the 35-yard line. This season the penalty for a kickoff out of bounds will give the offense the ball at its own 40-yad line.
Here is why that is significant: In the past, with the ball being kicked off at the 30-yard line, receiving teams with good return people might elect for a re-kick if the kickoff went out of bounds. It took a lot of time to get all of the players back onto the field and in position to kick off again.
Most coaches are telling me that they will just take the ball on the 40 after an OB kickoff because it’s such good field position.
But here is something to watch for and something coaches will try to avoid. The rule states that the penalty for a kickoff out of bounds is to award the ball to the offense 30 yards from the spot of the kick. So if a kicker sails the ball out of bounds and the receiving team asks for a re-kick, it will take place from the kicker’s 25-yard line. If he kicks the ball out of bounds AGAIN, the offense gets the ball on the 45. That’s huge. So if the opponent thinks you have a shaky kickoff guy, they might make you kick it again.
5. Officials seek consistency; go national: I guess it’s because I’ve been watching college football a long time, but I think this is a really big deal.
In a major effort to make officiating more consistent from conference to conference, the powers that be have created College Football Officiating, LLC. Parry will be its first national coordinator.
This is something college football has needed for a long time because, frankly, different leagues put different emphasis and interpretation on the rules. Coaches would actually adjust their thinking in a game based on where the officials were from.
“We want to eliminate the phrase ‘We don’t call it that way in our conference,’” Parry said. “We don’t want coaches and fans and players to be worried about which particular crew is working which game.”
The organization will hold clinics and send out DVDs to supervisors of officials across the country to point out areas where there may be some inconsistency in officiating. There will be accountability throughout the system, something that is handled only on the local level now.
For a long time coaches have been wanting something to make sure that the rules were interpreted consistently across all conferences. This organization will attempt to do that. It can only help.
“I can’t remember a time when there has been more excitement about a change in officiating,” said Grant Teaff, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. “All our coaches want is consistency.
Here is a bonus point that I found interesting.
Trying to stay cool: Ron Courson, Georgia’s director of sports medicine, is very involved in the effort to reduce heat-related injuries in the game. Courson, who is considered to be one of the best sports medicine guys in the country, pointed out to us that 90 percent of the heat related problems in college football take place during preseason practice. That makes sense because the practice takes place in the heat of August when some guys are not in the best of shape, particularly the big fellas.
But Courson said that heat related problems are down, in part, because true freshmen are allowed to come to summer school before the fall semester.
“We have two months to get them in and help them get acclimated to the heat,” Courson said. “It also gives us a chance to get a better grip on their medical history so that we can be proactive from a prevention standpoint. In the past they showed up on reporting day with everybody else.”
It’s such a common sense thing. You wonder why nobody thought of it before.
One week to go. I’m ready to see some football. How about you?
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TONY BARNHART’S BCS GAME PREDICTIONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mr. College Football has spoken. Now it’s your turn. Give us your BCS bowl projections below.
BCS CHAMPIONSHIP
Jan. 8, 2009, Miami
Georgia (SEC champ) vs. USC (Pac-10 champ)
ROSE BOWL
Jan. 1, 2009, Pasadena, Calif.
Ohio State (Big Ten champ) vs. Arizona State (at-large)
ORANGE BOWL
Jan. 1, 2009, Miami
Clemson (ACC champ) vs. Oklahoma (at-large)
FIESTA BOWL
Jan. 5, 2009, Glendale, Ariz.
Missouri (Big 12 champ) vs. BYU (at-large)
SUGAR BOWL
Jan. 2, 2009, New Orleans
Florida (at-large) vs. West Virginia (Big East champ)
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An early look at Jacksonville State
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jacksonville, Ala. - A week from tomorrow, Georgia Tech will open the 2008 season against Division I-AA Jacksonville State. There will two major story lines in the game:
• Georgia Tech’s first game under new coach Paul Johnson.
• The debut of Jacksonville State quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, the transfer from LSU.
Perrilloux was the MVP of the SEC championship game last December when LSU beat Tennessee 21-14. Had he remained at LSU, Perrilloux would now be the starting quarterback for the defending national champions. But he didn’t stay. He was kicked off the team.
On Tuesday I had lunch with Perrilloux and his new head coach, Jack Crowe. I’m working on a story for next week about Perrilloux’s long and winding road to Jacksonville State and how much he is looking forward to next week’s game with Georgia Tech. But for now I want to share five nuggets of information with you about Jacksonville State that will not make the story:
1. Georgia Tech got a good deal: Crowe made the deal to play at Georgia Tech because of his old friend, Chan Gailey, the Yellow Jackets’ former coach.
“Financially, we need to play a BCS team every year if we can,” Crowe said. “When I can play my friends I like to do that.”
And Georgia Tech got the good friend discount when it signed a two-game deal with Jacksonville State.
Jacksonville State is receiving a guaranteed payment of about $200,000 to make the two-hour drive and play next week. In today’s market that is a steal.
Division I-AA Appalachian State got $400,000 to play at Michigan (and beat the Wolverines) last season. App State is getting $550,000 to open the season at LSU. Sun Belt conference teams are getting as much as $1 million from SEC schools for a single game.
“In future contracts we’re going to have to get a bump,” said Crowe.
Jacksonville State is supposed to come back to Georgia Tech again in 2009. But if the school gets a better offer from an SEC school, don’t be surprised if it tries to buy its way out of the deal.
2. Crowe asked Richt for advice: Crowe, a former assistant at Auburn and Clemson and (briefly) the head coach at Arkansas, has been head coach at Jacksonville State since 2000 and won the Ohio Valley conference championship in 2003 and 2004. But after three straight seasons at 6-5 he saw the program slipping. The problem, as he saw it, was in leadership.
“I just thought there was something missing,” he said. “We were losing close games because we just didn’t have the leadership that a program should have. And as coaches we weren’t developing leadership.”
So Crowe consulted two coaches he believed excelled when it came to teaching leadership: Mark Richt of Georgia and Mack Brown of Texas.
“We adopted a lot of their principles and we immediately have been able to tell a difference,” Crowe said.
3. There will be two No. 11s against Tech: When Perrilloux arrived in May, No. 11 had already been given to freshman quarterback Marques Ivory from Warner Robins. Marques had made it very clear during his recruitment that he wanted to wear No. 11.
Perrilloux wore No. 11 at LSU and has been wearing the number since junior high football and basketball.
“I was pretty attached to my number,” Perrilloux said.
So Crowe decided that both players would wear No. 11 this season.
“Maybe we’ll play both of them and no one will notice the difference,” Crowe said.
Doubtful. Perrilloux (6-3, 235) kind of stands out in a crowd.
4. Ivory will get on the field against Tech: Ivory has the distinction of never having lost a game that he started as a quarterback. He was 30-0 and led Northside High School to back-to-back state championships in 2006 and 2007.
There are only three quarterbacks on scholarship at Jacksonville State: Perrilloux, Ivory, and Brooks Robinson, another freshman. Crowe plans to get Ivory (6-1, 235) on the field against Georgia Tech.
“I like to work my backup into the game about the third series so that he’s not under time pressure,” Crowe said. “Ivory is a good athlete and we’re excited about what he can do.”
Understand this. When Perrilloux agreed to come to Jacksonville State, there was not a scholarship quarterback on campus. Crowe had kicked his projected starter off the team. So Perrilloux came here knowing he was the starter from day one. That, as we will explain in next week’s story, is a big reason why he is here.
5. Crowe worried about Tech DL: When the discussion came to the Georgia Tech game, Crowe spent a lot of time praising the Yellow Jackets’ defensive line.
“If they are not the best defensive line the country, I’d be afraid of who is,” said Crowe.
We talked about Tech’s two great tackles, Vance Walker and Darryl Richard, and end Michael Johnson, who a lot of people believe is going to have a huge season.
“And people are telling me the young guy (sophomore end Derrick Morgan) is a really good young talent,” Crowe said.
Crowe is concerned because the youngest part of his team is the offensive line.
“I wish we were a little older up front, especially going against those guys at Tech,” he said.
A few bonus nuggets about Jacksonville State:
• Despite the youth on the offensive line, Crowe says this is the most talented team that he’s had at Jacksonville State. “I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about us,” Crowe said. “We respect Georgia Tech but we won’t be intimidated from a talent standpoint.”
• Jacksonville State, located about 20 minutes north of Anniston, is the only school in the history of the NCAA to have national championships in football, basketball and baseball. Only six other NCAA schools have won championships in football and basketball (Michigan, Michigan State, Florida, Ohio State, North Alabama and Wittenberg).
• Remember Ashley Martin? The native of Sharpsburg, Ga., was the first female in history to score a point in an NCAA football game. She kicked a couple of extra points for Jax State in a 72-10 win over Cumberland on Aug. 30, 2001.
• Randy Owen, the lead singer for the country music group ALABAMA, is a JSU grad and a member of the school’s Board of Trustees.
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Does Florida have Georgia on their minds?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With less than two weeks to go before the start of the season, things are starting to get really serious around the camps.
1. Does Florida have Georgia on their minds?: It sure seems that way. At least that is what Cameron Newton, Florida’s backup quarterback, told me. Newton, from College Park (Westlake H.S.) has a lot of friends on the Georgia team.
“Man, they (Georgia) have opened something up,” Newton said, obviously referring to last year’s en masse charge of the end zone by the Georgia team. “It’s going to be a fun game this year. I know coach (Urban) Meyer wants it bad. And our players want it bad. They are predicting that it’s going to be the game of the year.”
Only 74 days until the World’s Largest……Oops. Sorry. Old habits are hard to break.
Only 74 days until the Georgia-Florida game. Has there ever been a game in this series that has been more anticipated than this one?
Speaking of the game. It’s not official but you can mark this down. The game will be at 3:30 p.m. and it will be shown by CBS.
2. Arizona State not thinking about Georgia—yet: I talked to Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson last night for a story that I’m doing on his quarterback, Rudy Carpenter. I mentioned to Erickson, who won two national championships at Miami, that a lot of Georgia people were getting excited about the Bulldogs’ trip to Tempe on Sept. 20.
“That’s unfortunate,” Erickson said with a laugh. “It’s bad enough that they’re bringing the No. 1 team here. They are going to bring a crowd, too?”
Erickson mentioned that Arizona State is in the same boat as Georgia in this regard: Both teams have to play a big conference game before they meet on Sept. 20. Georgia goes to South Carolina the week before and Arizona State plays Stanford at home on Sept. 6. Stanford upset Southern Cal 24-23 last season.
“The guy at Stanford (Jim Harbaugh) has done a really good job,” Erickson said. “And (South Carolina coach) Steve (Spurrier) is pretty tough at home. We both have a lot of work to do before we play.”
3. Why Cody is important to Alabama: There was a note in this morning’s print edition about Terrence Cody, the massive (6-5, 380 pound) JUCO transfer at Alabama. Here is why Cody is significant to Alabama’s hopes in 2008.
In order for his 3-4 defense to be truly effective, Nick Saban needs a huge space eater at nose tackle to occupy blockers. Loganville’s Lorenzo Washington is a good, veteran player at that position but on the small side. Although it’s hard to imagine that anybody who is 6-4, 283 pounds is considered small.
When I went to practice in Tuscaloosa earlier this summer, the coaches told me that they expected Cody to make an impact. He’s a great athlete for his size. And he can stuff the run. No doubt about that. The questions are about his stamina and whether or not he can also play on passing downs.
But if Alabama can rotate Cody and Washington, and if freshman linebacker Jerrell Harris is as good as he appears to be, the Crimson Tide defense will get better in a hurry.
Let’s put it this way. Clemson’s big question mark is the offensive line. Cody will give them something equally big to think about.
4. When in doubt, simplify the offense: In today’s modern offenses, quarterbacks have a lot to think about BEFORE they run a play. Some guys, like Peyton Manning, process this information like a computer. Other guys have a tough time keeping track of all that information AND executing the play. So the head coach steps in and simplifies the offense.
This is definitely happening at Alabama and South Carolina this summer.
Anybody who has watched Alabama for any length of time knows that John Parker Wilson is a rhythm passer. When he gets into rhythm he’ll make a bunch of good throws in a row. Get him off rhythm and the throws tend to sail and he tends to make mistakes.
New OC Jim McElwain has come up with a more quarterback friendly approach that gives Wilson fewer pre-snap reads and makes the post-snap reads more simple.
“I like the way John Parker has responded to this,” Saban told me. “We want him to feel more comfortable and this is a good way to do it.”
Spurrier is doing the same with Tommy Beecher. Spurrier’s offense demands a lot of a quarterback. Spurrier demands a lot of his quarterbacks as well. When I met with him recently Spurrier conceded that he was probably asking Beecher to do too much.
“Tommy can make all the throws but we probably need to cut things down a little bit,” Spurrier said.
5. UCLA names Craft starting QB: Tennessee now knows that the much-traveled Kevin Craft will be the UCLA’s starting quarterback when the Vols go West to play on Sept. 1.
Craft played in nine games (starting five) as a redshirt freshman at San Diego State in 2006. He stayed despite the fact that his father, Tom, was fired as the Aztecs’ head coach after the 2005 season. When Tom Craft landed the job as offensive coordinator at Mt. San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, Calif., the son transferred. Last season Kevin Craft threw for 4,231 yards and 44 touchdowns last season. His team won the Southern California Junior College Championship. By the spring semester he was enrolled at UCLA and now, due to injuries to the first two quarterbacks, he’ll take the first snap against Tennessee at the Rose Bowl.
Good for him. Now it’s time to play big boy football. Tennessee’s defensive front may not be the best in the SEC, but I’m pretty sure Kevin never saw anybody like Demonte Bolden (6-6, 290) in his California junior college league.
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Georgia’s consensus No. 1. So now what?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Earlier this year I told Georgia coach Mark Richt that there was a bright side to his 2008 schedule. He was all ears to hear what the smarty pants media guy had to say about that.
The bright side is this: If Georgia goes 13-0 against what I believe is the toughest schedule in school history, the Bulldogs WILL be in the BCS championship game at Dolphins Stadium on Jan. 8. Remember that Auburn started the 2004 season at No. 17 when it got squeezed out at 12-0.
Now that Georgia is No. 1 in both major polls (AP, Coaches), the Bulldogs know they are a lock for South Florida if they run the table. Frankly, if Georgia is 12-1 with an SEC championship on Dec. 6, it should STILL be in the big game. But that is another discussion for another day.
Once the consensus No. 1 target is placed squarely on a team’s back, there are all kinds of unexpected obstacles that pop up. If you’re a Georgia fan, here are five potential hurdles you may not have considered:
1. History is not on Georgia’s side: Since the Associated Press starting doing preseason polls in 1950, only two teams that started No. 1 have stayed in that spot for an entire season and won the national championship.
Florida State’s 1999 team, led by Chris Weinke, started No. 1 and won them all, beating Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl for the BCS championship. This was the only undefeated team that Bobby Bowden has ever had. The Seminoles also had to survive three close games with Georgia Tech (41-35), Clemson (17-14), and Florida (30-23) just to get to the BCS championship game.
Southern Cal, which had won the AP national championship in 2003, started at No. 1 in 2004. And as good as that team was with QB Matt Leinart (2004 Hesiman winner) and RB Reggie Bush (2005 Heisman winner), it had to survive several close calls just to get to the BCS championship against Oklahoma. The Trojans beat Stanford by three (31-28), California by six (23-17), and UCLA by five (29-24). They fell behind 13-0 at Oregon State but rallied to win 28-20.
The point is that for even the great teams, going wire-to-wire is incredibly difficult. You have be good AND a little lucky.
2. Dan LeFevour: Georgia fans are talking about the opener with Georgia Southern on Aug. 30. Then they are talking about the all-important trip to South Carolina on Sept. 13. But waiting in the middle on Sept. 6 is a game with Central Michigan, the two-time defending MAC champions.
About right now a bunch of you are snickering and saying: “Barnhart, please! Get a grip! It’s just the MAC!”
But consider this: Remember how Troy and QB Omar Haugabook came to Sanford Stadium and rolled up 488 total yards last season? Haugabook had 310 yards passing against a very good Georgia defense. Georgia needed four turnovers to pull away and win 44-34.
LeFevour is better than Haugabook. Last season he became only the second player in Division I-A history to pass for over 3,000 yards and rush for over 1,000 yards. He had 4,774 yards of total offense. By contrast Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner, had 4,184 yards of total offense (3,286 passing, 895 running).
I know. The competition level is much different. But a hot quarterback can be a great equalizer (see Armanti Edwards, Appalachian State vs. Michigan).
3. Arizona’s “dry” heat: I talked to Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter the other day. My first question was about the weather.
“Oh, we got a little cool snap today,” he said. “It only got to 107.”
Southern teams assume they can handle all kinds of heat because hey, they practice in some of the steamiest conditions around. And Arizona does not have the humidity of the deep South. It’s a “dry” heat.
But it’s one thing to play at home in the heat and yet another to fly across the country and play in hostile conditions like the kind Georgia will face at Arizona State on Sept. 20.
The long-range forecast calls for a high of 98 degrees in Phoenix on Sept. 20 and with a kickoff of 5 p.m. (local time), the temperature at game time won’t be far from that. It could be hotter. The projected high for Sept. 6 is 102 degrees. The projected high for Sept. 13, the week before the game, is right at 100.
If Georgia falls behind early the temperature will go up several degrees in Sun Devil Stadium. It’s just something to think about.
4. Tony Franklin’s spread: When Troy came to Sanford Stadium and rolled up those 488 yards of total offense, Franklin was the offensive coordinator calling the plays. When Auburn hosts Georgia on Nov. 15, Franklin will again be calling the plays as the Tigers’ new OC.
Troy turned the ball over four times in that game, including an interception by Haugabook at the Georgia 11-yard line. Georgia led 27-20 in the third quarter when Marcus Howard knocked the ball from Haugabook’s grasp and ran it down to the one-yard line.
“We are right there until that play,” Franklin told me. “We proved we can move the ball but you just can’t turn it over.”
The Georgia game will be Auburn’s 11th in the new spread offense this season and 12th dating back to the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Clemson. The Tigers should have it down pat by then.
5. Kirston Pittman, Tyson Jackson: Both of these guys should be in the NFL right now. Instead they will give LSU the best pair of defensive ends in college football. Pittman missed two complete seasons (2005, 2006) due to injuries. He was a freshman on LSU’s 2003 national championship team and a senior on the 2007 national championship team. He applied for a sixth-year of eligibility and he got it. Last season he led the Tigers in sacks (8.0) and tackles for loss (13.0).
Jackson is a fifth-year senior with 26 starts and probably has the best speed off the edge of any player in the SEC.
With DT Ricky Jean-Francois clogging up the middle, LSU will send these guys after Georgia QB Matt Stafford early and often on Oct. 25. Stafford will be without his security blanket in left tackle Trinton Sturdivant.
Even if Georgia wins in Baton Rouge, if Stafford gets beat up in this game it could effect his play the following week against Florida in Jacksonville.
A final personal note: Some good news this morning. A number of you have written very kind notes about the upcoming change in my working relationship with the AJC. That change will still take place in late September. But I want you to know that we’ve come to an agreement to continue the Mr. College Football blog through the 2008 season. That’s a tribute to you. Together we have built this blog into something that is really fun and (hopefully) very readable. I’m excited about this new development and appreciative for the opportunity to continue Mr. CFB for one more season. Thanks again for all your support.
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What the SEC/CBS deal really means
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nobody asked me, but this morning I believe:
1. The CBS deal seals Mike Slive’s legacy as SEC commissioner: Slive took over in 2002 and has received high marks for helping the league clean up its image. He set the goal of having no teams on NCAA probation in five years. People were skeptical, and rightfully so. After six years only one SEC sport (Arkansas track) is still on probation. Given the competition in this league and the contact sport that is recruiting, that’s a very notable achievement.
But understand commissioners are also judged on their ability to put their conferences on sound financial footing not just now, but long after they are gone.
With Thursday’s unprecedented 15-year deal with CBS, that runs through the 2023 season, and the deals that will follow from ESPN and others, this conference proved once and for all that it is “the gold standard of college athletics” as CBS VP Mike Aresco put it.
I spoke to Slive again last night. You could hear him smiling through the phone. “We’ve got some work left to do but this is big for our conference,” he said. “But this is very important step for the Southeastern Conference. We are all very happy.”
You need to know about two other people who were heavily involved in getting this deal done. Mark Womack is Slive’s top assistant and should be the SEC commissioner when Slive retires. Chuck Gerber is a former ESPN executive who came on board this year as a consultant to help the SEC put the deal together. That’s how important it was.
Roy Kramer put the SEC on this kind of financial footing when he was commissioner from 1990-2001. Kramer was the driving force behind the BCS and the explosion of college football on TV. When Kramer took over the SEC in 1990, the league was sharing $16 million in revenue each year. Last spring the 12 SEC members shared $127 million.
Kramer brought the SEC into the modern age and now Slive has taken the baton and advanced it for another generation.
2. There will not be an SEC TV network: When I talked to Slive Thursday night he insisted that all options “are still on the table” when it comes to the possibility of the league forming its own TV network like the Big Ten.
I have no inside information but I don’t believe it will happen for one reason: The SEC doesn’t need it now.
The league obviously got the deal it wanted from CBS, giving them an exclusive national broadcast for the next 15 years. ESPN loves putting the SEC in prime time and will step up to the plate. I’m hearing ESPN would like to own the rest of the SEC’s TV rights and then be able to sell what they don’t need back to folks like Raycom, who will do the 12:30 p.m. games. To do that, ESPN would have to pay a premium. Keep your eye on that one.
The SEC has studied the distribution nightmares experienced by the Big Ten, where only 33 percent of the league’s TV sets were covered when it went to market. The SEC can’t do that.
I was joking recently when I told a Big Ten person that the distribution problems that his league had would not be tolerated in the SEC. It’s a totally different football culture.
I said: “If Illinois-Michigan is not on free TV, then your office gets a lot of nasty phone calls. If Alabama-Tennessee is not on down here, somebody’s house is going to get burned down.”
No really, I was kidding. Kind of.
Slive told me he wants to get the rest of the TV deals done in the next 20 days.
3. Forbes got it right: This week Alabama coach Nick Saban became the first college football coach to ever appear on the cover of Forbes Magazine. The headline on the cover read: “Sports’ Most Powerful Coach.” The magazine picked Saban because of his total control over every aspect of the football program at Alabama.
I agree. You can argue over who is the BEST coach in the SEC. But based on my experience there is no coach I know whose fingerprints are on every moving part of a football program the way Saban’s are at Alabama. And while that may not necessarily be a good thing at other places, at this point in Alabama’s history it is absolutely essential.
For too long there were way too many voices speaking for Alabama football. Since the death of Bear Bryant in 1983 nobody, except Gene Stallings, seemed to have complete control over the program. And as a result Alabama could not sustain the legacy left by Bryant.
There is no doubt about who is in charge at Alabama. That’s why the Crimson Tide will be good again sooner rather than later.
4. There will never be another “Hoss” Brock: Ninety-nine percent of you have never heard of Jim “Hoss” Brock, the long-time executive director of the Cotton Bowl. But I wish you had known him.
Hoss was a colorful throwback to the days when bowl deals were struck in smoke-filled rooms and a bowl executive director wasn’t a businessman, he was promoter and usually a PR genius. That was Hoss. The story of how he got Doug Flutie and Boston College for the 1985 Cotton Bowl was the stuff of legend. All of his competitors were trying to land Flutie for New Year’s Day and he found a way to get the deal done when nobody was looking. It was a crazier time and so unlike the corporate structure of the bowl business today. But it sure was fun.
Hoss Brock died yesterday at the age of 74. Those of us who have been in this business for any length of time grieve his loss and that of Dave Cawood, the long time director of the NCAA Men’s Final Four. We lost Dave in July.
The college athletics landscape that you enjoy today was built by guys like Hoss Brock and Dave Cawood. We will miss them.
5. Ben Mauk’s lawsuit does not have a chance: The former Wake Forest quarterback, who played last season at Cincinnati, is suing the NCAA to get a sixth year of eligibility. Mauk redshirted in 2003 as a freshman at Wake Forest. He played in 2004 and 2005. In 2006 he suffered a severe shoulder injury in the opening game and missed the entire season. He transferred to Cincinnati and played the 2007 season. That’s five years, which is the standard amount of time a player has to complete his four years of eligibility. The NCAA will give a sixth year if injuries force a player to miss two full seasons.
Mauk has had three hearings with the NCAA, which says there is not enough documentation to prove that Mauk missed his freshman season due to injury. Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe has written several letters to support Mauk’s case but the NCAA still says no.
The NCAA really digs in its heels on these eligibility cases. Despite an injunction against the NCAA, Cincinnati won’t use Mauk until the issue is resolved.
I personally believe Mauk deserves another year. But I don’t think he’ll get it.
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How huge is UGA’s loss of Sturdivant?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is hard to believe, but two weeks from tonight we will play the first games of the 2008 season. And because the injury bug has bitten frequently in the last seven days, there are some things that need to get resolved in a hurry.
Here are just a few of the burning questions that need to get answered in the next 14 days.
1. How huge will the loss of Trinton Sturdivant be for Georgia? I think it’s really huge but managing these kind of things is what coaches are paid to do and why recruiting for depth is so important. If this injury happens on an SEC team with serious depth issues, it could be devastating. But, as Chip Towers pointed out, over the past few seasons Georgia has made recruiting offensive linemen a priority. This is where that decision should pay off.
Georgia will put another really good player into that left tackle spot. But I also know this: There is a reason that Sturdivant has been holding down the left tackle spot pretty much since the day he walked onto campus. He was the best lineman Georgia had. The Bulldogs will still be good at that position. But they can’t be AS good. On such subtle distinctions championships are sometimes won or lost in the SEC. Only time will tell.
And here is the other question. Do you move right tackle Kiante Tripp, over to the left side? Some coaches say no because now you’re putting new players at TWO different positions, creating more disruption on the offensive line. Other coaches say you have to put the best player possible at left tackle because he protects the blind side of your quarterback.
And keep this in mind if you’re a Georgia fan. Under new defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, South Carolina is working on different ways to take advantage of the skills of its best pass rusher, Eric Norwood. Norwood has moved to outside linebacker but Johnson told me that Norwood would continue to put pressure on quarterbacks because he does it so well. Georgia will see a lot of Norwood when the Bulldogs go to Columbia on Sept. 13.
2. Will Mitch Mustain be the guy at Southern Cal? USC quarterback Mark Sanchez dislocated his left kneecap in practice last Friday. Sanchez said he hopes to be back for the opener at Virginia on Aug. 30.
This opens the door for Mustain, who won eight games as a true freshman at Arkansas in 2006 but transferred after a serious falling out with Houston Nutt and the Razorback coaching staff.
A lot of people have questioned whether or not all the drama surrounding Mustain’s transfer was really necessary. I know because I was one of them. But there were a lot of people in Arkansas who are convinced that Nutt completely mishandled the entire Mitch Mustain situation and forced a great player to go elsewhere. The fallout on all sides was considerable and the hurt feelings are still significant.
It would be sweet redemption for Mustain if he were able to take over the USC offense and have some success. And it sure would make a lot of Arkansas fans ever madder to see Mustain playing pitch and catch in a Southern Cal uniform on national television against Ohio State on Sept. 13. This will be fun to watch.
3. Will Tennessee have a cakewalk at UCLA? Last spring Patrick Cowan, projected to be UCLA’s starting quarterback, injured his knee and was lost for the season. On Tuesday Ben Olson, his backup, had surgery to repair a broken right foot. Now the Bruins and Rick Neuheisel are down to junior college transfer Kevin Craft and redshirt freshman Chris Forcier.
One of those guys is going to have to take the first snap against Tennessee on Sept. 1 at the Rose Bowl.
Any time a team has to fly out to the West Coast to play it is not easy. But this injury increases the possibility that Tennessee won’t have to fight tooth and nail to get out of Pasadena with a win. Understand that the first three weeks (UCLA, off week on Sept. 6, UAB on Sept. 13) for Tennessee are about getting ready to host Florida on Sept. 20 and then go tot Auburn on Sept. 27.
The injuries at UCLA could make that process a little easier. Or not.
4. Who is going to be Auburn’s starting quarterback?: OC Tony Franklin told me that at some point he would name a starting quarterback-either sophomore Kodi Burns or JUCO transfer Chris Todd. That decision is coming soon.
Burns got more work in the new offense during spring practice because Todd had a dead arm. But Todd knows the offense inside and out because he’s been running some version of it for most of his football life.
My money is on Burns, who has made great strides as a passer since the end of last spring.
“At first I wasn’t sure if Kodi could throw the ball well enough to run our offense but then I saw his high school tape. He was a very good passer but something happened after he got here,” Franklin said. “It wasn’t anybody’s fault. But these things just happen.”
Burns also has the ability to plant his foot and make defenders miss, which is very important in this offense. Todd will play a lot because he’s very talented. The fact is that if you run the spread offense, you have to have two quarterbacks ready to go at all times.
5. Will Josh Jarboe make the most of his third (and probably final) chance at Troy?
I think so. Jarboe was released at Oklahoma when it was discovered that he had made a short video with references to gun violence. This was after he had been kicked out of high school for bringing a gun onto school property.
Now he lands at Troy, which could be the best possible move for him. Troy has a very competitive program on the rise, but it is not in the white-hot spotlight of a place like Oklahoma or the SEC. He’ll get a chance to develop as a player and a person.
Ryan Perrilloux got a second chance at Jacksonville State and Jarboe deserves this third chance at Troy.
But at the risk of sounding like a dad, here is a piece of advice to the young man: If football is really important to you then you’ll simplify your life. Concentrate on football and going to school. That’s it. This is your last chance.
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Oklahoma had no choice on Jarboe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Tuesday our Drew Jubera did a marvelous job of reporting and telling the story of Josh Jarboe, the former Oklahoma player from Ellenwood. Jarboe was released from the OU program after a cellphone video that contained a number of violent references and a string of profanities made its way to YouTube.
Drew interviewed a number of people who spoke to the fundamental goodness of the kid. I have no reason to doubt their sincerity. I have not met Josh Jarboe. He may be a wonderful kid. The claim is that he was just doing what kids his age do and became a victim of today’s technology. In short, he engaged in behavior that, in another time, would never have seen the light of day.
But I also know when it comes to something like this the fact that Jarboe may be a good person is pretty irrelevant.
Here are the facts:
Jarboe was expelled from high school for bringing a weapon onto the Cedar Grove campus. When approached by authorities he tried to hide the weapon. He had to take online classes to get his high school diploma.
Oklahoma stuck with Jarboe after this incident. Based on their research he was a good kid who made a bad decision. Teenagers make bad decisions all the time. That was a reasonable position to take.
But when Jarboe’s 74-second video hit cyberspace, the entire dynamic changed. Now Oklahoma had a kid who, after almost losing everything because of the gun charge, makes a video that makes references to AK-47s and shooting people in the head.
Head coach Bob Stoops at first supported Jarboe, feeling that what he did was a private event that never should have gone public. But Stoops must know what his players already know: Everything video, sooner or later, makes it way to the internet.
Here is the harsh reality of this situation. This is really not about Jarboe or some kind of clash of cultures or a generational misunderstanding.
This is about the fact that in April of 2007 a crazed student walked into a Virginia Tech classroom building and murdered 32 people. It’s about the fact that there were some signs that the killer at Virginia Tech was prone to violence. But nobody picked up on those signs until it was too late.
What if Oklahoma, knowing Jarboe’s background, had just let the video incident slide? Now consider the unthinkable. What if the ultimate horror story takes place and someone’s child is killed at Oklahoma with Jarboe holding the gun?
Understand that there is no evidence that Jarboe has any tendency towards violence. By all accounts, he is just a normal, talented kid looking for an outlet for his creativity. But again, what kind of person Jarboe is becomes irrelevant in this kind of di